learnthe4ps.com - For students of marketing.

Danish Chocolatier Anthon Berg created a special pop-up store in Copenhagen, Denmark. At this store, customers couldn’t pay for their boxes of chocolate with cash, they paid instead with good deeds. Each product was labeled with a deed the customer had to perform – like “Serve breakfast in bed to your loved one” or “Help clean a friend’s house.” Customers posted their promised “payment” on their Facebook page right in the store — helped by staff carrying around iPads. Think about all the promotion operating here: the store served as a billboard, the Facebook posts as advertising, and the positive media coverage as great publicity. All of these tactics reinforced Anthon Berg’s desired positioning as a generous and socially conscious brand. Brilliant!

The video below was put out by the ad agency, Robert/Boison, so you can get a behind the scenes look.  I hope this inspires your creativity this summer day.

Check out the latest viral videos from the Cola giants.  Both entertain — but the contrasting approaches in these two videos clearly demonstrate the different tack each takes.

As you all know, Google, Amazon, Facebook and plenty of others probably know more about you than your mother.  Or at least they know more about certain parts of your life.  They collect data in an effort to serve up more personalized marketing offers and messages. Privacy advocates are very concerned – though I find most of my students are not.

The whole issue raises an interesting dilemma — especially as browsers add “Do not track” buttons.  These buttons let consumers opt out of providing data to some of these firms, see “Microsoft and Google play chicken over Do Not Track,” (CNNMoney, June 8, 2012).  Many consumers want to receive targeted and relevant messages — it can make life and buying easier. Others prefer to have more control over their personal data. That is where some new companies are stepping into the fray. These companies may allow you to decide just how much data to reveal — and to which marketers. You can learn more from this Marketplace story, “Taking control of your personal data,” (June 8, 2012, link to listen or read the transcript).

What do you think?  Are you worried about your online data being used to send you marketing messages?  Would you take advantage of Personal or Enliken?

This year unseasonably warm spring temperatures gave drivers of Good Humor ice cream trucks (which often roam neighborhoods in U.S. cities and towns) the opportunity to make some money early in the selling season. But many of these same drivers are now upset as Good Humor has run out of customer favorites — like the Toasted Almond and Chocolate Éclair ice cream bars. These drivers are important channel members for Good Humor, and when they can’t stock customer favorites everyone loses. This situation provides an opportunity to discuss the tradeoff faced by many producers of goods and services. When forecasting sales, producers have to tradeoff inventory costs and possibly spoilage if they overestimate demand against lost sales and the loss of consumer and dealer goodwill when demand outstrips supply. Good Humor plants will eventually catch up with demand — can you wait until the end of July???   You can read more in this Wall Street Journal article, “Not Cool: I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream ‘Where the Heck’s Our Ice Cream‘” (May 25, 2012, non-subscribers may need to click here).

Marketing Charts summarizes research conducted by BIGInsight in “Creative Grocery Shopping The ‘New Normal’ Post-Recession” (May 22, 2012). Somewhat surprising was the finding that consumers are spending more on groceries now than they were before the recession (maybe less eating out? — they don’t say). Not surprising is how consumers have changed their shopping behavior – preparing more lists, using more digital resources before they go shopping, shopping closer to home and visiting more stores. You can find the exact data in the article.

Take a read through the article.  Do you think that this is the “new normal” or will shoppers return to pre-recession habits after they feel more flush?  How do you think this will affect the marketing strategy for Coca Cola?  For a major grocery store chain?

Some of the most creative advertising comes out of South American. This one is from Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi in Argentina.